Year over year, and despite regulations on the industry, consumers are turning to debit in greater numbers. Debit offers better control over spending, and greater ease for consumers. But because of the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act, which limits the amount banks can charge for debit swipes, the industry is likely hurting from this
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The upcoming expiration of a generous deposit-insurance law may have the “1 percent” and cash-heavy savers scrambling to safeguard the large amounts of funds they have stored in certain bank accounts.
Read »The relationship between regulators and business is, to say the least, a tense one. By its very nature, the relationship requires that regulators constantly be playing catch-up to business, and because of this the two can easily get into some serious spats. With technology rapidly changing the way we move money around, and with a
Read »Finding a solid return on your savings is a tough task in today’s low interest-rate environment. Savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs) fail to impress diligent savers, who’ve watched rates sink in recent years. Rewards checking accounts have also seen rates plummet. But they remain relatively attractive for some savers.
Read »Teen angst is likely as old as the concept of a teenager, and in modern days has kept afloat plenty of industries: parenting books, Hot Topic, screamo and studded things. It’s an important stage in one’s adolescence, to hate everything in society that prevents you, a 16-year-old, from really achieving what you think you’re capable
Read »It came out this week that Republican candidate for President, Mitt Romney, actually worked at Bain Capital, his private equity fund, for a couple years longer than he has claimed publicly. Whether this matters or not will take some time to sort out, but it won’t be the last we hear of it this year,
Read »When one-quarter of an industry’s leaders admit, in a survey, that lying and cheating is a prerequisite for advancement in that industry, what good things can you possibly say about it? Would you trust it with your life savings? Probably not, but the joke’s on you: you already do!
Read »The prepaid industry shows no signs of letting up. In fact, it should see substantial gains in market share over the coming years. According to a report by Packaged Facts, a market research firm, payment volume in prepaid is projected to rise by 22.4% this year alone “on the strength of almost 10 billion transactions.”
Read »This week’s financial news was dominated by the fallout from the Barclay’s LIBOR manipulation scandal. The bank was manipulating the influential interest rate in order to both appear more worthy of credit, and presumably to make some money on trades. LIBOR is used to set the prices on some $800 trillion in financial instruments worldwide,
Read »National averages of certificates of deposit (CD) rates continue to show signs of stagnation, as rate averages moved little in the prior month. Market murmurs, however, fueled speculation that the Federal Reserve may take measures to push interest rates even lower.
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